US airlines expect that FAA will allow a five-year “grace period” for full compliance with the agency’s 2010 mandate that carriers’ aircraft be Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out capable by Jan. 1, 2020.
Airbus, aiming to become a “major” player in A350 aftermarket support, is poised to announce its first long-term agreement with an A350 customer and is in talks with several more, a company executive said.
Spanish carrier Vueling, the low-cost platform for International Airlines Group (IAG), has taken delivery of its first Airbus A320 with a new cabin configuration.
United Airlines pilots on the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 fleets will stop starting the auxiliary power unit (APU) after arrival to save money, the carrier told pilots recently.
British Airways has become the first airline to get the go-ahead to use Boeing’s Electronic Logbook (ELB) to eliminate paper technical logs on its 787 Dreamliner fleet.
Flydubai took delivery of its 44th Boeing 737-800 of an order for 50 placed at the Farnborough Airshow in 2008. The remaining 737s from the order will arrive at the airline this year. The average age of the flydubai fleet is 3.1 years. Flydubai also has on order 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and 11 more Boeing 737-800s, placed at the Dubai Airshow 2013.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) is joining the growing number of airlines that are introducing a premium economy class, with the product to be rolled out across a large part of its fleet over the next few years.
Kazakhstan-based Air Astana has introduced an economy sleeper class on Boeing 757 services from Astana to London and Frankfurt from Feb. 3; Paris will be added March 29.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said the carrier is trialing the use of constant data uploads from flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders, aka black boxes, of its aircraft.
The fire aboard a parked Japan Airlines (JAL) Boeing 787-8 in January 2013 occurred because of “shortcomings” in designing and certifying the lithium ion batteries installed on the aircraft, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined.
Air France will improve its passenger product on medium-haul flights in a €50 million ($62 million) investment plan in a continuing move upmarket as it aims to differentiate itself from competitors and improve the performance of mid-haul services.
Ryanair is in talks to switch 165 of the 180 Boeing 737-800s it has on order to the Sky Interior and is considering whether to upgrade its existing fleet to a similar standard.
Russia’s state-owned Rostec Corp. and Aviation Corp. of China (AVIC) have reached a strategic agreement to implement joint projects in aircraft, helicopter and engine manufacturing.
Air traffic surveillance and tracking specialist Aireon said it will offer its Aircraft Locating and Emergency Response Tracking (Aireon ALERT) global emergency tracking solution free of charge to the aviation community for any automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) equipped aircraft.
